The present invention relates to a shift lever structure for operating an automatic transmission installed in a vehicle.
In a prior art, there is known a conventional shift lever structure as shown in FIG. 1
Referring to FIG. 1, a tubular shaft 1 is provided at an axial center thereof with a shift lever 2 which is fixed thereto to extend upwardly. The shaft 1 further includes a select lever 3 which is also fixed thereto to extend downwardly so as to be associated with a not-shown automatic transmission. At both ends of the shaft 1, bushes 4 of synthetic resin are fitted thereinto to reduce the frictional coefficient. By inserting a mount bolt 7 into the respective bushes 4 through a frame 5 and then threadably engaging the mount bolt 7 with a nut 6, the shaft 1 can be rotatably supported by the frame 5.
In the above-mentioned structure, however, there is raised a problem that the shift lever 2 and the select lever 3 cannot be mounted on the shaft 1 with high accuracy, so that the dimensional quality of the assembly is not stable. Because, in the structure, both shifts 2 and 3 are secured to the shaft 1 by welding.
In addition, since the above shift lever structure employs the pair of bushes 4, the mount bolt 7 and the nut 6 as means for pivotably supporting the shaft 1, the costs of its production and maintenance are apt to be increased because of the number of parts constituting the structure.